All My Children

When setting targets it is important that they are as specific as possible. Playing ‘nicely’ is far too vague to be measurable. Sharing a toy for a set period of time (anything from one minute at a time up to, say, ten minutes) will be far more useful as evidence of a child’s progress. Simple notes will need to be kept of progress and will provide evidence of what parts of the programme have been least and most successful. Every child is an individual but following a core set of activities during the programme will make it easier to deliver similar interventions to others in the future.

Once the parent interview, staff briefing and target setting have been done the programme itself can be started. All early years settings are different but a sample plan is outlined below.

A sample programme

Week One

Each session the key adult takes the child by the hand and leads him or her to the selected activity area in the room, gathering up the two or three others who are going to share the activity and at the same time explaining that ‘we play safely‘ in our pre-school and telling the child what is going to happen next, e.g. ‘Today we are going to play with the sand with Jo and Annie.’ Explain clearly the expected behaviour: ‘I want you to play safely and keep the sand in the sand tray — then you can move on to your favourite activity . . . ‘. By having a pre-arranged set of activities which have been shared with the parents and all the other adults involved, it is possible for everyone to discuss with the child at the start of the day what is going to be happening. A large timer can be very useful to assist in keeping the child focused (e.g. ‘ When the sand has all gone through, then we can go to the next activity.’).

Once the child has played safely for the set number of minutes (and this can vary from individual to individual — some may be unable to manage more than about two minutes at a time), they should be invited to take the adult’s hand and walk sensibly to the next activity. Some children will benefit by being taken by the hand for a walk round the outdoor area as the adult points out examples of happy, co-operative play, e.g. ‘Look at John and Ahmed — they are having a good time sharing the scooter properly so each has a turn.’

It is important that each section of the programme follows a similar pattern so that a routine is established right from the start:

1. Rule reminder before the activity (e.g. we play safely and never hurt others)
2. Short activity with the key adult and two or three other children, while encouraging discussion about playing safely and using praise effectively: `I really like the way you are waiting for Annie to fill her bucket. .
3. If necessary, a walk round the area and discussion about the activity while pointing out good behaviour of others
4. A second activity in which it will be necessary to share equipment and wait for a turn. It is often a good idea to contrive to make sure that there are not enough items for each child to have exclusive use of equipment so that they can practise asking for, and providing others with, fair shares
5. A final song or finger rhyme to end the session
6. Return to the main activity area

Early years settings vary considerably but all will have a natural break or snack time of some kind. It will be helpful for the key worker to sit with the child and talk about the ‘rules’ for break time too.

Week Two

During the second week of the programme the key adult may wish to introduce another child to the programme to play alongside the target pupil, making sure that they know each other’s name. Children who have displayed difficulty in playing co-operatively with others often appear to have a problem learning other children’s names and it may help to develop their social skills if they are encouraged to address their peers by name (rather than just grabbing them!). Although the aim of the week is to encourage the children to play and talk co-operatively alongside each other, at the start of the week the adult needs to remain close by or in between them to forestall any argument or upsets. The format of the programme in Week Two remains similar to the first one, using whichever activities are on offer that week. With more children playing together the amount of conversation and use of vocabulary may well increase but the adult needs to ensure that the words ‘fair’, ’share’, ‘kind’, `turn’, ’safe’ etc. feature prominently. In the early years setting four children in the group is probably ideal but, depending on the social skills levels of the children, it may be possible to have six children working alongside each other.

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